Curated by William A. Ewing, Edward Burtynsky: Essential Elements provides an overview of Burtynsky’s work across four decades, including both iconic images and previously unpublished photographs. Relinquishing the project-based lens through which the photographer’s work has previously been presented, the major monographsOil andWater being the most recent examples, this book presents Burtynsky’s photographs in five free-flowing sections which combine and contrast work from throughout his career. This original approach provides a sense of both his visual language and his exploration of the dilemmas at the heart of our globalized world. Each section is interspersed with selected texts which work in concert with the images, to provide a fuller understanding of Burtynsky’s view of the world.
With an introduction by Ewing and an afterword by Joshua Schuster, Essential Elements provides an entirely new way of seeing Burtynsky’s work for those who are already familiar with it as well as an accessible introduction for those encountering his photographs for the first time.
